


Chaos Reigns

by Ghost0



Series: The Borg-Cenobite War [5]
Category: Hellraiser (Movies), Star Trek: The Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:09:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28516197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0/pseuds/Ghost0
Summary: As more Borg and Romulan ships arrive, Picard finds himself forced to make a choice.
Series: The Borg-Cenobite War [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018060
Kudos: 2





	Chaos Reigns

Worf and the two Romulans have travelled throughout the Borg ship in an effort to find Picard or Data. The female Romulan has even been trying to locate a spot on the ship where she could hack into the ship’s system in an effort to send out communication. But the ship has appeared to change in more ways than initially expected. In addition to stone being added in the vessel’s material, new rooms and chambers have been added with pre-existing rooms being moved around. At least, that is what it seems like. It is hard to tell what is normal regarding the Borg and what has been altered, aside from the obvious signs and indications. Without the bleeding bodies of the former drones crying out in agony, a lot of what has occurred already seems to be blending into what was already there.

But things took a drastic turn when they entered a new chamber. A strange structure stood in the middle of the room and there were two figures standing before it. A woman in tight latex, a hole being held open in her head to expose her brain. The other was Data, his back turned to Worf and his party.

“Lieutenant Data!” Worf called out. “Where is the captain?”

But Data did not respond. The woman turned around to face them. “Your captain is being made an offer as we speak. As for this machine, he will soon be one of the flesh and made to serve Leviathan.” The Romulans brought out their weapons and started to shoot at her. But like with the creature from before, they did not seem to affect her in any way. She gave the slightest of grins when they realized the lack of effect they were having. “Weapons from this realm can’t harm us. We are the Cenobites, explorers of the flesh, masters of pain and pleasure. Our existence is not defined by the laws of your dimension.”

“Our phasers may not hurt you.” Worf stepped forward. “But I assume hand to hand is the same no matter where you come from.” He threw a punch but was blocked. She pushed her hand against his chest and he flew backwards. Chains came out from the ship and pierced his clothing and skin. He grunted and growled as he was pulled up against the far wall. More chains reached out and ripped into the bodies of the Romulans, lifting them up in the air and making them immobile. 

The woman in latex stepped towards the trapped Klingon. One of her black covered hands reached up and grabbed on side of his snarling face. “Such an aggressive species. I sense that you and many like you will struggle harder than most at the beginning. But in the end, all flesh will be conquered. Your mind will open to what lays beyond this realm and see the truth of existence. Pain and pleasure are all there is. But you will be given the power to become masters of them.” He continued to struggle and call out to Data, but he had his back turned to him still, not able to respond as he was engaged with something else.

******

“Commander!” Riker turned his head to look over at Geordi. “We are picking up on ships leaving warp speed!” Just as Riker looked up at the screen, several Borg cubes were coming into sight. All of them were coming to the mutated Borg ship from the other side. As soon as they appeared, several Romulan ships appeared right alongside Hurai’s ship. 

Riker stood up and kept his composure. “Shields up. Are our weapon systems online?”

“Yes sir.” Geordi confirmed. 

“Are there any Federation starships within communication range?”

Geordi checked. “We have four that are incoming. They should just be within range to send out a message.”

“I want this to be sent out.” Riker cleared his throat before starting his message. “Have your weapons systems at the ready, but I don’t want the first shot to be fired from a Federation starship. Even if this is the Borg, we want to try and make sure this doesn’t get to a point that will result in loss of life. But if it comes to it, we will support the Romulans. Send transmission.”

Geordi confirmed that the message had been sent out to the incoming starships. “What do we do now sir?”

“Hail Captain Hurai.” The view screen shortly brought up the face of the Romulan. “Captain, several Federation ships are on their way and should be here in a matter of minutes. We will support you if it comes to a battle. I just ask for you to refrain from firing the first shot, at least until backup has arrived.”

“If we were facing at just the one Borg ship, I would be willing to do so.” Hurai told Riker. “But in case you haven’t noticed, we now have several Borg ships. And who knows whether they will turn on us first or the rogue Borg vessel.”

“They haven’t attacked us yet. Their attention will most likely be focused on the rogue ship and obtaining any of their captured drones. I realize the danger of the situation we are in. I just ask that you tell your fellow captains to hold off for just a few more minutes.”

The tense silence made Riker on edge. It probably only lasted a few seconds but it felt longer. But the response helped ease him ever so slightly. “If the Borg fire first, we will retaliate. Until then, I will relay your message. They better get here soon.” Captain Hurai’s face disappeared from the screen. Riker remained standing and cleared his mind, trying to focus on keeping the uneasy peace for as long as possible.

******

Picard noticed the group of Romulan ships outside the view screen behind the Cenobite with pins. He tried to slow down his heart and focus on the sound of his own breath. He will not give this sadist the satisfaction of showing that he is intimidating him. He tried to shut out the sound of Chatterer near them. His eyes closed for a moment before figuring out how exactly he wanted to word his response to the Cenobite.

“You know, I find your mentality very similar to that of the Borg.” He began. “Assimilate or die. Of course, when it comes to the death part, I mean it from a more spiritual sense. Because you seem intent on making us all serve you one way or another. But I will not surrender myself to you.” He straightened his back and stared the Cenobite directly into his eyes, almost as intensely as the creature himself. “You make it sound like our world is a place of torment, that the only way to deal with it is to escape by submitting to our base instincts. You talk of pain and pleasure as though they are the only things that exist and worth anything. But I believe that our world is far more rich than what you make it out to be. Our lives, as chaotic as you might describe it, are worth seeing through to the very end. Overcoming the obstacles in our lives and the differences between all of us is the way to finding true pleasure. Finding a way to connect to our fellow man on a spiritual level as opposed to a purely physical one is the way.”  
It was hard at first to know what exactly was going on in the Cenobite’s mind. Chatterer remained silent, waiting for his leader to react. It was in the long moment of nothing that Picard noticed more movement beyond the view screen. Federation starships appeared near the Enterprise. And for a moment, Picard felt confident that they will prevail.

That was when the chains escaped the shadows. Tearing through his uniform, the hooks on the end of the chains tore through the surface of his skin. He tried to remain silent, but some groans and cries escaped his lips. His arms were forced back, his knees buckling but his body not allowed to hit the floor beneath him. Picard looked back up at the Cenobite.

“You shall be dragged into the depths of the Labyrinth. There you will be experimented on, the limits of your body tested until the blood is drained has been completely drained. Your soul shall be torn apart, your anguish echoing for all to hear and relish. And then – but only then – shall Locutus be reborn. Only then will you spread Leviathan’s will in all dimensions until order has been established.” He took several steps toward Picard. The chains forced him upward so that he was eye level with the Cenobite. His face pushed forward just a little bit, to make sure he commanded Picard’s full attention. “This is the way. And so it shall come to pass.”

Picard tried to keep his anger in check. Push the pain trying to dominate his mind to the back of his mind. Tring to find the energy to break free from the restraints of the chains and reach forward to try and fight back.

The chains were gone and he fell onto the ground. He heard a voice, but he couldn’t identify it as he tried to regain his focus. Blood ran down his arms inside his uniform, someone grabbing one of his bloody hands and tried to bring him up onto his feet. He turned and found himself confusingly staring right at William Riker. “Captain! What happened on there? And is that…?” He looked down and examined some of the blood on Picard’s hand.

“I…how…?” He could hear his communication device going off. Riker nodded, encouraging Picard to answer it. His hand reached up to activate the device. “This is Picard.”

“Captain, this is Lieutenant Data reporting from Ten Forward. I am currently with Worf, the two Romulans and Q.”

“Q? He was on the Borg ship?” Picard asked.

“Affirmative. He was being held prisoner. It is my guess they could have been using him to help transform the ship or as some sort of energy supply. To be honest, we aren’t completely sure what these beings are capable of captain.”

“Of course. But if Q was on board, how come he didn’t end this earlier?”

“He was held within a structure that forced him to remain in one physical form and kept him in continuous pain.” Data responded. “It drastically limited his abilities and took away his focus. It wasn’t until I was in the same room as him that he was able to reach out to anyone for help. The structure was partly made up of Borg technology. He establishing a silent communication link me and helped guided me to destabilizing the structure so that he could break out and get us off the ship.”

“Silent communication link?” Riker spoke up. “You mean telepathy?”

“In theory, I suppose you could call it that. But I don’t have an organic mind and it is to my understanding that members of the Q Continuum don’t have a natural physical form to begin with.”

“Never mind that now.” Picard winced a bit in response to the pain in his arms. He looked out at the Borg ships and Romulan war birds on the other side of the view screen. “Has he regained enough strength to deal with the situation that is about to happen?”

“I will have to check with him sir.” Silence for a few seconds. “He says that he will need a moment and to have some damned patience. I’m assuming the pain he still feels has aggravated him.”

Picard and Riker waited and watched the view screen. It seemed like any one of the ships could fire the first shot in an instant. But in a bright flash, everything disappeared. The Romulans war birds, the Borg ships, even the mutated ship inhabited by the Cenobites have all gone. It was only then that Picard could let out a sigh of relief, his legs feeling weak and he started to buckle. Riker reached out and supported his body, getting him down to the Sick Bay.

******

Data escorted Worf down to the Sick Bay shortly after Picard arrived. It was there that Data filled Picard more on how Q came to be on the ship with the Cenobites. It was transferred to him in what Riker described as telepathy. But as Data insisted, it shouldn’t be called that due to a lack of physical brains. Q found himself in the natural dimension of the Cenobites and became entrapped by their ruler Leviathan. They used him as a key to unlock the door to get into their universe. They came across the first ship they found, which ended up being found by the Borg after their visit. Leviathan created what could be described as a digital Trojan Horse where, when solved, allowed his followers to board the Borg ship and take over. As far as Data could pick up on, Q was being kept as more of a backup source of energy. A lot of the strange transformations and actions that have taken place can be attributed exclusively to the Cenobites. Now free, Q sent them back to their dimension and locked the door behind them. He also transported all the Romulans and Borg back to where they came from and wiped their memories. When Picard asked why, all Data could tell him was that it seemed like Q thought it would be best if only very few people know about their existence.

Picard remained in the Sick Bay after Worf and Data had left. Dr. Crusher was wrapping up treatment for the wounds in his arms. “You have been very quiet after Data left.” She commented. “Care to share what’s on your mind?”

“No.” Picard said. “I don’t believe so.”

Beverly let go of his arm and stepped back just a little bit and looked at his face. “I thought you would be more willing. By this point, you should realize that it is better to let out your thoughts so that they don’t do further damage later on.”

His hands reached down to grab onto the edge of the examination table. He slowly exhaled. “I was made an offer on that ship. To willingly join these Cenobite creatures, become one of them, as opposed to being forced to join and be tortured. For a brief moment…there was a part of me that wanted to.” She did not respond, recognizing that he wasn’t finished. “He asked me, after I was freed from the Borg, if I felt like I had something missing within me. And I couldn’t say no. When I was a part of the Collective, there was a perverted sense of belonging and purpose. While these Cenobites seemed to have retained some sense of individuality, there aren’t dissimilar to them in that sense.” He thought about the story he was reading earlier, the legend of Faust and the deal he made. His head picked up and he looked at Beverly, but it didn’t seem he was really looking at her. But rather lost in his own head. “I have always believed that we always have a choice in life. The ability to choose our own path. But what if there is something all powerful that is laying out a path for us to follow?”

Beverly remained silent for a moment longer. She leaned her head back and thought for a second before responding. “We do know that there are beings more powerful than we can ever hope to become. Data helped free one of them from that ship. Something tells me that Q wasn’t exactly planning on being anyone’s captive.” Picard raised an eyebrow and slightly nodded in agreement with her assessment. “I also know that there are a lot of people who try to force others down a certain path. Make them make decisions that benefit their own agendas. Regardless if those manipulators are some sort of celestial being or a ruling government body, I think there will always be free choice.” Beverly rubbed his back and helped him onto his feet. “Now I want you to get some rest. Your arms will feel weak and I don’t want you to make it worse.” 

Picard nodded and left the Sick Bay. He made his way up to his quarters, asking the replicator to make him some hot Earl gray tea. When he turned around, he noticed something was on his bed. It was a box, one that actually appeared very similar to the one the lead Cenobite was playing with before. He put down his tea and picked it up. He remembered back to that ship, in that chamber. That box back there had a distinct design painted on its sides. This one that has appeared before him seemed to have something on it, but it wasn’t connected in any way. Pieces of the design were separated and spread out chaotically across all sides of the box. It was then he also remembered the Cenobite saying something. About sending out the means for others to summon them. There was a whisper in his mind, urging him to play with the box and fix the design to what it should be. He almost listened to it. But he walked away from the bed, finding a compartment to put the box and make sure no one else could access it. With it out of sight, he drank his tea and listened to music in an attempt to quiet his mind and find some peace.


End file.
